What a Difference a Week Makes

The last three days have been really warm and quite sunny with no cold frosty nights. Spring has now sprung forward at a rapid pace. You can almost hear the plants growing and the leaves bursting from their protective sheaths. So different from last Sundays cold Novemberish day.
The Birthday boy and I took Number 1 son and Dawn, with the grand children and great grand daughter, to Pizza Hut for lunch today. Pizza Hut is not a place we would usually go to. Too many calories so it was an indulgent 'pig out' day for us. A little different to our usual Sunday roast. Quite an enjoyable change though.
It was No 3 sons birthday today and he should have been with us with his daughter, our third grand daughter, Grace. I think Ja was a little upset Grace hadn't come this week end and so he didn't feel like coming with us. After lunch we all piled around his tiny house to say hello and happy birthday. How did those little 'three up, two down' terrace houses cope with large families in the Victorian times when they were built. We were spilling out of his front door!

Little Caitlyn-Rae is showing a talent for driving like her great granddad and her granddad. Her Dad has no interest in driving though!
After returning home the laptop was finally decanted from it's box! I think we need to sort out the broadband and upgrade to wireless before he can really appreciate and use it. I'll have to get it sorted this week.

My Garden Wild Life

Several morning over the last week my pond has had visitors. Not the usual cheeky heron but three ducks waddling and swimming about. They turn up about this time each year. Always one female and two drakes. Admittedly they have cleared some of the weed and algae from the pond but Oh they do make a mess and they've eaten all the tadpoles. Reluctantly I've chased them off each time. It's not as if they are short of water space around here. They've three great lakes to swim on over in Nene Park.

I was just sitting down to a late breakfast in the conservatory this morning when I spotted 'Hissing Sid' basking in the warm sunshine. He's a grass snake and has been around for a few springs and summers now. He was half out of the water on the water fall. I grabbed the camera and creeped up on him, OK or her! He has a large fat bulge in his belly. Was it a bird, one of my fish or one of the frogs? Well what ever he had swallowed it will keep him going now for a few days. It's amazing to watch his elastic mouth open to swallow whole a frog whose girth is several times larger than the snakes.

The Celebration Dinner

The reluctant dinner guest seen here conducting without a baton had cheered up and accepted his lot!

He had been grumpy during the journey to the pub. He took exception to being forced to change out of his beloved jeans, from not knowing where he was going and not being allowed to drive. He got in the car declaring 'I don't like surprises'.

Once he realised the guests were just close family he cheered up. His brother and sister in law from Yorkshire were not able to come down to be with us. Sonia had unfortunately slipped and fell, breaking her hip in two places. She had unwittingly sprung the surprise the night before so 'himself' knew we were going out to a party but that was all.

Sean and Dawn had picked up Darrin and Jason and my main gift for him. The laptop he had been wanting. That cheered him up even more. My sister, brother in law and my Mum completed the guest list.

The Pub, The White Hart at Ufford, is a lovely 'oldy worldly' stone built pub. The bar is decorated with railway memorabilia and the seating deep leather sofas. We had a large oval table in the Orangery part of the restaurant. The food was really good and the service efficient and friendly. Definitely a pub to revisit and to be recommended. We had a really enjoyable and pleasant evening

65 and still alive

............well that's what the badge said in his birthday parcel. All that effort I made to find it and he forgot to wear it! He liked the shirt..... well, that was a forgone conclusion. It'll be rotated with the other hundred or so hanging in his wardrobe. The trousers (or pants to you across the 'pond') are a smidgen too tight. OK..... so..... do we exchange them for a larger pair or do we (yes, both of us) do a weight watching exercise? I feel the later may be the most sensible suggestion. The slippers (boring but practical) what can I say, they were added to tease! He thought they were OK but I wonder if he thought the box it was all packed in contained the laptop that he really wanted! Oh what a disappointment!

It was a lovely day, bright and sunny. Best to take advantage of it before we get rained on again. It 's Friday and so it's Market Day in Stamford so that's where we headed for.

Stamford became a small Danish settlement in about AD800 when the Danes raided Britain. It's a low spot on the river Welland where people were able to ford it. It's also the only place in England where four Counties meet. We both like the historical buildings, the atmosphere, the mix of little interesting shops that outnumber the usual boring high street sameness. We love its quaint alleyway's and snickets, and it coffee bars and tea shops. Stamford is also Dave's birthplace so a visit on his 65th birthday seemed appropriate.

When we were kids both of our families use to come to these Meadows on a Sunday afternoon for picnics and if the weather was nice we would be allowed to swim in the river. The river passed through the town and is edged by these water meadows. Unfortunatly the river is not a safe place to swim in now days. Such a shame, the simple fun we had then is now replaced by super safe, hygienically sterile, expensive, over supervised play places for kids.

Many of the streets and buildings in Stamford have been used in films This one featured in 'Middlemarch'

The houses and shops are built from the locally quarried sandstone and are a beautiful mellow ochre.

This Norman arch survives in a nook of the road very near the Old 'Rare Book' shop.


The market stretches along one of the streets closed to traffic every Friday its an eclectic mix of stalls Much more interesting than the Peterborough market in it's purpose built enclosure. There was a farmers Market this week. It sells it's wares along the middle pedestrianised street of the town.
While we were walking along the third street through Stamford , the only street with traffic flowing through it today, we were stopped in our tracks by a loud continuous quacking and out from a snicket on the other side of the road burst a mother duck with a brood of tiny duckings. The duckings were stumbling and rolling after her. She shepherded her brood across the road made a missing all the traffic and straight into the open doorway of a small coffee shop. Quickly realising her mistake and with more flapping of wings and insistent quacking they all tumbled out except one lonesome duckling. Mum and her brood minus one rapidly waddled, tumbled and rolled down another narrow snicket down towards the river. The abandoned duckling was scooped up by a good Samaritan shopper who followed mother duck down the snicket. Everyone on the street had stopped to watch the brief frantic flight of the family. Last seen the little duck family now united with daddy duck were bobbing about on the river.

After a reviving cup of tea and a slice of cake in a book shop tea shop we made our way across the meadows back to the car.

What Spring?

The blogs been a little neglected over the past week. Not for the want of time but 'cos I've spent too much time reading other peoples blogs!!!

Anyway back tracking a little...... Last Sunday we decided to go for a walk after lunch. We live so close to the Nene Valley Country Park but so seldom go over there now days. The mornings rain had passed over but the weather was still dull, very grey and quite cold so we wrapped up well. It felt more like a November day rather than mid April.

The diesel trains were running along the Nene Valley Rail line. No sign of the steam trains. What is it about old trains the attracts Men? When we use to go on camping holidays with the boys we always finished up near a steam train line. This line has been used in quite a few motion Pictures over the years James Bond and Octopussy, Mission Impossible to name just two. Oh yes, and Queen's last music video was filmed here before the death of Freddy Mercury. We listened to them belting out the music going up and down the line one summer evening.

The sculpture carved from the old tree at the entrance to the Park has mellowed to a beautiful silver grey. The last time I was over there it was still quite orangy looking when the wood was still fresh. There is quite allot of Roman archeology in the Nene Valley hence the Roman soldier in the carving.

The parks usually heaving with visitors on a spring Sunday. Today the wild fowl outnumber the visitors.

A nice hot cup of tea and a squidgy slice of vanilla sponge at the Water Sports Center made a welcome break. It's a long walk around the lakes and despite swimming each morning I'm still not as fit as I should be. We really must do this more often.

A Private View

Dave is not normally attracted to Art Exhibitions. Car, aircraft and science museums are more in his line. So I had expected to go to this one on my own unless No 3 son could find time to come along. Anyhow he decided he would go with me. So late Saturday afternoon we attend Barbara Cameron 's (Sewell) and Polly Vincent's 'Private Viewing' in the old Bakehouse of the Great Northern Hotel. This was Barbaras and Pollys first exhibition.

Some of Barbara's previous works already hang in the Hotel having been bought by Peter Boizot some time ago. Notably the three huge canvases that hang in the main function room.

Boizot a renown local entrepreneur and founder of the hugely successful Pizza Express chain is an Art lover and collector with an enormous collection of art. The hotel is an art gallery for a large part of his collection. The bar is painted in a spectacular red and lined with some of the most wonderful prints and paintings all to do with Peters other love Jazz.

I had taken a much better photograph of Barbara It had turned out well so I didn't take another. She jokingly said to me 'I'll break your camera' ..............Wrong thing to say Barbara........ the photo was replaced with a 'Memory Card Error' message

Barbara is a lover of the Scottish Colourists has been painting for years now. A huge influence on her style was her late husband the sculpture and Model maker, Marcus Sewell. All her paintings are abstracts acrylic on canvas. Her work is so energetic with a real depth and understanding of colour.

Out of all the wonderful paintings on display I kept being drawn back to this small intimate deep maroon coloured piece. It's price is a little much for me but I really would like it so If it hasn't sold by the end of the Exhibition I'm going to buy it. I know just where I'll hang it.

The Old Bakehouse is a wonderful place to display art work and the walls are already covered with some of Peter's vast collection.
It still retains on of it's original ovens, made in the city by the Baker Perkins factory.

After we left the exhibition we wandered through the Red Bar admiring the Jazz prints and paintings once again before walking back to the car through the peaceful hotel gardens past the statue of the late Duke Ellington.